Co-presence Analysis and Economic Patterns: Mediterranean Imports in the Celtic World

Abstract

This article presents one of the first steps of a project which aims at exploring the diffusion patterns of Mediterranean imported goods in Late Iron Age Europe (250 to 25 BC), and the organisation of the commercial interactions of these goods. It brings together two archaeologists and a mathematician in the study of a wide inventory of 57,735 Italian and Greek imports discovered from England to Serbia. This large amount of new and unpublished data is analysed through the joint use of network analysis tools and formal statistical methods. The analysis focuses on detecting patterns in the association of imported artefacts that are often found on the same sites. The objectives are to highlight groups of imports that may have circulated together, and to emphasise regional selections by local populations. At this stage of the study, two main systems of imports have been highlighted, used respectively in West and Central Europe. Interesting leads that will need further investigation include the imports status and the role they played in Celtic societies, as acculturated objects or more as objects for acculturation.